250 
THE PRINCIPLES OF BOTANY. 
He mentions it as a specific in epilepsy, and as useful in apoplexy 
and giddiness. It is easy to see what gave countenance to this 
idea has been the fact that the parasite grows from the under 
part of the foster parent, with its head downwards, and hence we 
may take it for granted that, viewed in every way, it owes its 
repute to its peculiar structure. Its rich, bright, pearly seeds 
hanging in such abundance was in itself an emblem of fertility, 
and, if these grew on the oak, the same symbolism would point 
to it as augmenting its powers. It is, indeed, probable that 
ideas of this kind prompted the use of the mistletoe, which is still 
continued in Christmas rites. This doctrine of signatures, then, 
seems to have influenced the early use of most plants, and it may 
well be imagined the Christmas use of the mistletoe, under the 
boughs of which, while the kiss of affection was given, the mystic 
berries are often furtively plucked, either to be used as a medicine 
or held as a charm to secure some wished-for blessings. 
We are told that, in one of Culpepper's MSS. at the British 
Museum, is a curious notice of Sir Peter Freschville's house at 
Staveley, Derbyshire, is this passage: “ Heare my Lord Fresch- 
ville did live, and heare grows the famous mistletoe tree, the only 
oake in England that bears mistletoe;' 5 and to this tree the 
following letter, written between 1663 and 1682, from the 
Countess of Dauby to Mrs. Culpepper probably refers :— 
“Dear Cozen, —Pray, if you have any of the mistletoe of 
your father's oke, oblige me so far as to send sum of it to your 
most affectionate servant, Bridget Danby.' 5 * 
With such views respecting mistletoe it is not to be wondered 
at that it should be so little used in church ornament, upon 
which a writer in the Quarterly Review says :—“ It seems some¬ 
thing like caprice, which has excluded the mistletoe as well from 
the decorations of our churches at present as from their ancient 
sculpture and carvings. We know of one instance only of its 
occurrence. Sprays of mistletoe, with leaf and berry, fill the 
spandrills of one of the very remarkable tombs in Bristol 
cathedral, which were probably designed by some artist-monk in 
the household of the Berkeleys, whose ample and broad lands are 
among the chief glories of the west country, in which the 
mistletoe is now, for the most part, found. We do not remember 
to have seen it elsewhere, even lurking, among quaint devices of 
‘ Miserere;' whilst the oak, every portion of which, in the days of 
Celtic heathenism, was almost as sacred as the mistletoe which 
grew on it, was one of the principal trees f studied 5 by mediaeval 
sculptors when, during the so-called f decorated' period, they 
reproduced leaf and flower with such exquisite beauty and 
* ‘ Notes and Queries, 5 vi, 119, first series. 
